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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Anonymous Posting

I think turning off the anonymous comments option should not be a choice taken lightly. The position I am trying to support is that: The information contained in a post or comment is what matters, WHO made that comment should NOT be prioritized consideration.

As a blogger, I surely would prefer to know who made a certain comment, YET I wouldn't mind if all the commenting readers decided to post anonymously as I think "what is said" is more important than "who said that".

Some might raise the point that anonymous posters cannot be held accountable for their own comments and therefore are likely to make malicious posts. As much as that might seem reasonable, it has to be noted that -at times- there are legitimate concerns for privacy that a blog owner has to keep in mind.

Finally, from a practical perspective, if someone who does not own a blogger profile (or whatever service being used) has landed on a blog, the blog might miss a valuable comment due to the overhead required to post that comment. In this view, it becomes clear why blog owners should try to make it as easy as possible to post comments.

It has be noted that, whatever has been said above doesnt necessarily apply to all bloggers or types of blogs.

7 comments:

Although I don't usually agree with you, this time I agree 100%but out of experience I found that:Anonymity X Credibility= constantin other wordsAnonymity is inversely proportional to credibility. You can't be both

Iman, all depends on the judge panel, if they are Arab they will start making theories about connection of his family to government or to anti-government and all of his opinions from now on will be connected either to Pro or Anti school.

Good post, but i guess if some people want to always hear positive feedback for their political and social views, then they should turn anon posts off.

This way they will enjoy the constant praise and lols from their fellow bloggers.

And we are back to the rotten Jordanian culture of the absurd cycle of praise and counter praise Ya 3otooftak ou Ya 3otooftek. And as long as we are being constantly praised and agreed with, we must be doing something right...right? That sums up Jordan and the Arabs.

It all starts with why people blog and why they create their spaces, hence the importance of feedbacks is rated. if the structure of the blog is somehow local to the owner, annonymous posting doesn't really make a difference whether it was turned on or off or whether he/she needed feedback in the first place.

when a blog is structured with content that is meant to be open and for public discussion, i dont think the owner cares who comments rather than hearing the answer to his suggested topic, now in this case, having an identity gives the owner some sort of backgroud about the view posted which is not good. but when its under anonymous you read the pure content before relating it to anything or analysing why a certain person says so.

sometimes people post topics that are 100% contradicting themselves and their beliefs and when a person who really knows you reads it, its 0 accredited, thats why a complete annonymous blog ID also serves a purpose for who really wants random pure insight.

another friend once told me, i dont want my name to be googled and then my whole life story is there for others to read!

Blogging is an established tradition and with common practices such as open feedback. But if the objective is to limit feedback, bloggers should consider a membership-only Yahoogroup. I for one will not stop by a blog that does not permit open feedback. I visit only blogs with open feedback because I enjoy the blog as well as the posts.

Besides, anyone can create a bogus blog and start posting with bogus identity. Not much anyone can do short of turning feedback off. And even then, in a few situation when the discussion was heated and the blogger started censoring opposing views by deleting them, the posters started posting their comments to other blogs on the same group.

Blogging on social and political issues is not for the fainthearted. Those who wish to avoid negative comments, stick to blogging about what you had for breakfast.

Yeah! Mr Anonymous really has a point. Many blogs suffer the syndrome of unnecessarily excessive praise. It's like the bad social habits are being transfered to the baby blogosphere.

And it true, if someone has something to say, he'd probably find a way to say it. Turning off anonymous comments, and even comment moderation will be a real barrier. Moreover, any blogger who tries hard to block legitimate comments will most probably lose much of his own credibility.

Additionally the type of blog usually is an important factor as to how much feedback is important. Personal diaries, and taking notes of random thoughts might go well with comments turned off. But when the blogger decides to discuss topics of public interest, and expecting the public to read it, that blogger should increase the reliability and credibility of his writing using peer review. Peer review is an important factor that can make the difference between a mediocre article and a valuable one.

Qwaider, I am glad that we agree on this matter which at its heart deals with how free speech is percieved by the blog owners.

Jad, I think we as blogger can make it work for the Arab world, or whatever world we happen live in, because in the end, the whole world is made of millions of me and you.

Finally, Iman, I chose the color that is aesthetically pleasing for my eyes, in the hope others would also find it so. And you don't have to apologize for stating what is obviously true :)

About Me

Status:
I am a MSc mechatronics engineering student in the American University of Sharjah. -
Personal Description:
Me?? I'm just another guy out there!!! A bit careless and lazy. Also am so easygoing, honest, and smart. My interest areas are computers, rock and trance music, and psychology as well.